What I Did Instead

I was supposed to be washing unskeined yarn on Friday. Instead of that, I watched a little boy for my friend who had to work. Then I didn't dare wash the yarn, because I was afraid the kids would want a bath, and I didn't have the mom's permission to bathe her child. That sort of thing ranks high on my list of Do Ask First. So I was playing with kids instead, when my brother called me, with an attitude.

Him: "What are you doing today? Can you fix a zipper on my kid's jacket?"

Me: Watching children, and yes I can, but not today.

Him: (At first silence, then) When can you fix it? Before Monday?

Me: I'll try. I'll work on it here and there, and really try.

After all, I'm busy. I am throwing a Lia Sophia jewelry party on Sunday. I had to go to my grandmother's 83rd birthday party on Saturday. I was watching children on Friday. Oh, and BY THE WAY, the local newspaper is coming to photograph something somewhere inside my house on Wednesday. I'll tell you what, in a different post. So that means my "Hey, I have three kids" attitude on housecleaning was going to need to undergo a change. In four days, I want my house to look like something any normal person's house would look like. I haven't been able to find my magic wand yet, so I'm not sure how this will happen. One of the kids likely hid the darned thing... Oh, and I should mention that said zipper was broken because my brother got frustrated while zipping his daughter's jacket, yanked it too hard, and a tooth and the bottom of the zipper went flying off. So: not my fault, but sure, I'll try.

I ran to the zipper store and back, and began to try to pull off the zipper of this Columbia jacket. People, this is hard. Apparently the name Columbia does mean something, and that is durable. The material around the bottom of the zipper was glued, after it was sewn. I broke my seam ripper trying to open up that seam. And the Columbia construction people had put snaps in after the zipper, catching the zipper fabric in the snap. That babee was not meant to come apart. Hmm... I was looking at a four-hour project, at least. I wasn't cussing, but I did remark that I would need some coffee, and my husband asked to look at the zipper. I handed it over with hope. He is so good at fixing stuff. He studies it for a minute and then tells me to go read to the kids, he'll see what he can do.

When I come out, he has taken some of the teeth from the top of the zipper, pulled them off (some broke), and reinserted and then crimped one where the missing tooth was. Where they were taken from, there was no harm done. Now all that needed to happen was the bottom stop of the zipper had to be replaced. I cut off their purple stop, put in my blue one (they didn't have purple at the zipper store), and zigzagged sewed them together. It worked! It is perhaps at 85% capacity, and took an hour. I can live with that, since I'm 85% sure that he's just going to buy a new coat anyway, cuz that's how he is. And done! Now I'm looking at my unwound yarn.... pics of that when it happens.




Oh, and I found out my girlfriend's baby is a girl! Yay! So I'm nearly done with a pink and purple quilt. Purple is my friend's favorite color. And of course a sweater, but I'll cast on for that as soon as I get a little further on hubby's sweater. And I'll tell you about the photo shoot soon! It's going to take some time, and I have to go get ready to teach Sunday School.... oh, yes, then hold a jewelry party. Wheee!